Electronic slot machines have been traditionally operated by the players who insert coins or gaming tokens to activate the slot machine. The coins or tokens enter into the gaming machine through a coin head on the door of the gaming machine and pass through a coin acceptor mechanism that determines whether the coin or token is valid for that machine. The coin or token then falls into a coin hopper mounted internally in the slot machine.
In recent years, slot machines have begun to be made with currency acceptors provided therein as original equipment by the slot machine manufacturers. This construction allows a player to insert paper currency into the slot machine to activate the slot machine for play. The insertion of the paper currency causes a credit meter to be incremented according to the value of the paper currency. The player then uses the credits accrued on the credit meter to play the slot machine. A visual display of the credits accrued is normally shown on a meter visible to the player.
However, there are a considerable number of slot machines currently in use that presently are configured to only accept coins or gaming tokens. In order to extend the useful life of these slot machines, there is a need to convert these coin and token only slot machines to slot machines that are also capable of accepting paper currency.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a retrofit bill validator assembly that can be used to retrofit existing coin and token only slot machines to provide the capability of accepting paper currency.
It is a feature of the present invention that a replacement mounting plate is provided to relocate the reels of the slot machine and thereby provide space on the interior of the slot machine for a bill validator unit. The bill validator unit is also mounted on the mounting plate with the face plate of the bill validator unit extending through the front of the slot machine so that it is accessible by the player. A bill stacking unit forms part of the bill validator assembly and stores paper currency in a cassette for later removal.
It is an advantage of the present invention that coin and token only slot machines can be converted to be operable using paper currency. The expense of conversion is minimal, it can be done on location at the gaming establishment and there is no need to return the slot machine to the manufacturer for retrofitting. The cost of the coin and token only slot machines plus the cost of the retrofit bill validator assembly is less than the cost of a new slot machine manufactured with a bill validator as original equipment therein.